Obsessions

How many obsessions do I have? Too many to count. Most of them stem back to my childhood. I rarely discover new obsessions in my adulthood, except for, perhaps, my undying love for Jason Segel which flourished when I first saw “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.” But typically most of my obsessions can be traced back to my childhood. One in particular has been around for as long as I can remember: my obsession with movies. I remember the first film that really resonated with me. It was “Jaws.” I saw it for the first time when I was probably about seven. I didn’t even see the whole thing. I walked into the kitchen one day, and my brother was watching it on TV. So I took a seat next to him at our kitchen table, and I remember it was at  the scene where Quint gets eaten by the shark. Of course, I’d seen movies before that, mostly children’s movies like “Aladdin” and “The Wizard of Oz” (the green witch still haunts me). But I’d never really seen a movie until “Jaws.” Why do I connect so much with a film about a killer shark? I have absolutely no idea, but I know that I own the movie and have watched it now probably 25+ times. If you ever watch the movie with me, you’ll soon realize that I also talk along with the characters in the film because I have the lines memorized that much. Is this nerdy to admit? Yes. But, am I ashamed? Absolutely not. Movies are my biggest obsession. I watch around 7 movies a week. Two during the required screenings I have for my film classes, usually one for my job (film critic for the Daily), and about four in my spare time for fun. Movies are my escape. They help me relax. They inspire me.  And they make me happy. That’s why I watch so many and that’s why I want to be a screenwriter. The only thing better than sitting down to watch a movie is sitting down to watch a movie starring Jason Segel with a bag of banana flavored Laffy Taffy in my hands (strictly banana flavor, though, any other flavor is simply unacceptable). That’s 3 obsessions in one. But above all is the movie.

One of the best scenes in the movie.